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The sorry state of the Maple Leafs, a team in full rebuild mode, is making the Toronto Marlies hungrier than they might otherwise be.

The Marlies, the one MLSE sports property that makes the playoffs and wins rounds in the playoffs, kick off their fourth Calder Cup post-season in a row on Saturday (3 p.m. at the Ricoh Coliseum) against Grand Rapids, the top farm team of the Detroit Red Wings.

A 76-game minor-league schedule may well be more about development than winning, but the playoffs at any level are all about results. The extra nugget of motivation the Marlies have in their pocket is the reality that there are NHL jobs waiting with the Leafs next season.

“They’re building up currency for next year,” Marlies coach Gord Dineen said. “The longer we go, the more they do, the more people will take notice.

“It will be fresh in people’s mind when they’re coming off a positive feeling going into next year.”

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The feeling is not lost in the room with a Marlies team led by a line of small, skilled and gritty 20-year-old AHL rookies: Brendan Leipsic, Ryan Rupert and Connor Brown.

“Any organization you’re with, you want to make the NHL,” Leipsic said. “It’s a bonus when a team is in a bit of a rebuild. You’re trying to get better every day and leave a good impression with your play in the playoffs. You never know.”

Leipsic, at five-foot-10 and 177 pounds, came to the Marlies mid-season in a trade that sent Cody Franson to the Nashville Predators. Leipsic was a top scorer with the Portland Winterhawks in junior, and was drafted in the third round by Nashville in 2012.

Rupert, five-foot-nine and 190 pounds, is a London Knights product taken by the Leafs in the sixth round of 2012. He is a tenacious, forechecking centre who creates room for his offensively gifted wingers.

Brown, five-foot-11 and 170 pounds, was taken one spot ahead of Rupert in 2012. He blossomed as a scorer in junior with Erie and carried it to the AHL, leading all rookies with 61 points in 76 games this season.

“We’re not the biggest line and we’re not the tallest line, but I think we hold on to pucks down low in the offensive zone and our quickness works to our advantage,” Leipsic said.

It took Dineen a while to figure out where to put Leipsic on a team with so many young players. He had him with a few AHL veterans — Matt Frattin, Byron Froese, Sam Carrick — before deciding to put the three rookies together. It worked.

“Sometimes as young players, they defer to veteran guys,” Dineen said. “With the three young guys, they just go out and play. It’s been a benefit for them.”

The opening round is a best-of-five, with the higher-seeded Griffins having decided to take their three home games as Games 3, 4 and 5, giving the Marlies Games 1 and 2 at home.

The Marlies lost three of four meetings with Grand Rapids this season.

But if the Marlies have one advantage, it’s that the Red Wings are in the Stanley Cup playoffs, leaving the Grand Rapids roster a little light. Top scorers like Teemu Pulkkinen and Landon Ferraro are in the NHL now. Others, like Tyler Bertuzzi, have joined the Griffins from junior.

The Marlies are bolstered by veterans with some NHL experience, including defencemen Andrew MacWilliam, Stuart Percy, Petter Granberg and T.J. Brennan and forwards Josh Leivo, Carrick and Frattin.

“We’ve been fortunate. When guys have come down, they haven’t felt sorry for themselves,” Dineen said. “They see the things they have to work on. They get the message from coaches and management, what they have to do to improve to get to the next level and stay.

“They’ve all been really diligent in coming down. The confidence that they can play up there makes a difference.”

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